Robin Walker buys basic groceries, not steak and lobster, with her DSS food and nutrition benefits.

She’s disabled and lives on a fixed income. The slightest interruption in her budget ripples into bigger problems.

Now she’s learned the “food stamp” aid she expected next week won’t come until sometime next month. And officials say there are thousands of Gaston County residents in the same boat.

“I’m a diabetic, and groceries are not cheap for diabetics,” said Walker. “When you’re living on SSI (Supplemental Security Income) and disability, a delay like this is a big hit.”

The Gaston County Department of Social Services has seen the trouble coming for months. It’s tied to new software – known as NC FAST – being implemented across the state to improve the distribution of DSS benefits.

In the long run, it’s aimed at making things run more efficiently. In the short run, it’s doing the opposite, due to the complexities of converting tens of thousands of food and nutrition cases over to the new system, said Rebecca Lamphiear, economic services administrator for Gaston County DSS.

“It’s a wonderful concept,” she said of the new software system’s goal. “But we’re not there yet.”

Food stamp delays

Pilot counties across the state experienced backups switching to the new software last year. In October, local DSS leaders warned similar problems would likely occur here.

Food stamp cases are the first ones being converted. Medicaid and child support cases will be adapted later, Lamphiear said.

The process involves verifying all the information in each existing case. That means validating birth dates, Social Security numbers and numerous other details, before benefits can continue to go out.

Gaston County DSS has 21,345 food stamp cases, which provide food and nutrition benefits to more than 43,000 people, based on December statistics. It’s taking between 40 minutes to two hours to verify the client information in each individual case, Lamphiear said.

“Our process with this started Jan. 21, and until all this came up, we really didn’t know what we were facing,” she said.

Food stamp recipients have to be recertified every six months to a year, in order to keep receiving benefits. The people experiencing trouble in Gaston County are those whose recertification date is falling from late February through March, Lamphiear said.

It amounts to unfortunate timing.

“If you recertified your benefits in December, you’re lucky,” she said. “If your recertification is scheduled to occur in March, you absolutely will see a delay in your benefits, unfortunately.”

Walker, who lives in ARP Manor, a senior housing complex in Gastonia, has a recertification date of March 13. She began to wonder why she wasn’t receiving any correspondence from DSS, as she usually does, about meeting the deadline to keep her benefits from being interrupted.

She tried calling, to be proactive. Only after she was bounced around to six different people did she finally get somewhat of an answer, she said. She was told to expect at least a three-week delay in receiving her next food stamp aid.

“I wasn’t angry,” she said. “I was disappointed.”

Had she known to expect some delay, Walker said she would have cut back on other spending to prepare for the food stamp shortfall.

“I feel blessed. I’m not trying to complain, and I know there are people worse off than I am,” she said from her apartment Wednesday. “But I think there should’ve been some type of notice generated by (DSS). Why do I have to call to find that out?”

Lamphiear said the state didn’t send out any type of mass mailing because it was cost prohibitive. But she sympathizes with food stamp recipients in Walker’s situation, and said they’re working hard to rectify the problems.

“We’re working overtime and doing everything we can,” she said. “The unfortunate thing is that if I’m sitting there without food in my house, that’s not good enough.”

You can reach Michael Barrett at 704-869-1826 or twitter.com/GazetteMike.